The collective: A common information service for self-managed middleware

As the deployment of self-managed reflective middleware platforms increases, the process of collecting and examin- ing information used within the reflective process becomes ever more complex. The quality of such information is vi- tal to ensure the successful outcome of the self-management process. However, the cost associated with the collection of this information plays a major role in influencing the success of a self-managed system. Within typical deployment environments it is not uncom- mon for multiple self-managed systems to be deployed, each collecting information for use within their respective reflec- tive computations. In many cases, these systems will collect the same information, replicating the effort required to re- trieve the information. Such replication could be avoided by sharing information between systems to reduce the overall cost of collection within the deployment environments. Current self-managed systems lack adequate support for information collection and sharing. This work proposes the use of an independent information service to assist in the col- lection and management of information within self-managed middleware systems.